As early as three years ago, voices within the market began to talk down Apple Inc’s stock. Naysayers at the time were forced to eat humble pie after a succession of financial reports appeared to show Apple remained in rude health. Then, in the fourth quarter of last year, annual sales revenue from the company’s iPhone product lineup fell by 15 percent, finally knocking Apple’s share price off its pedestal. As with competitors such as Samsung Electronics, Apple has been unable to avoid sales of their smartphones hitting a ceiling. According to recent international media reports, Apple is currently undergoing a reshuffle of senior management in order to reduce the company’s dependence on the iPhone. Once the dust settles, however, it is difficult to see how Taiwanese suppliers of Apple’s iPhone supply chain will be able to continue to sup on their accustomed milk and honey.
Apple’s senior vice president of retail, Angela Ahrendts, is the biggest scalp of the reorganization process to date. Ahrendts joined the company in 2014, poached by Apple chief executive Tim Cook for a princely sum from fashion retailer Burberry, and was at one time viewed as a possible successor to him. Although Ahrendts certainly was successful in turning the iPhone into an exclusive luxury brand — at least from the perspective of eye-wateringly high prices — her departure feels like an admission of failure from Apple, and perhaps marks the end of the company’s quest to turn itself into a high-end luxury brand.
With the development cycle of smartphone hardware having hit a ceiling, it appears that Apple is carrying out a restructuring of senior management positions in an attempt to reorientate the company away from hardware toward software. However, both the content that Apple produces and the company’s app-based sales platform rely on, and are supported by, the iPhone in addition to other hardware produced by Apple. Transitioning the company away from hardware toward software will therefore pose a significant challenge.
Photo: Reuters
照片：路透
Realigning the operational focus of a large corporation is as ponderous as turning around an oil tanker, and cannot be achieved by simply replacing one of the company’s directors. By way of example, it took Microsoft Corp several years to gradually replace the majority of its core upper management positions from executive vice president level upwards. Only then was the company able to break free from its old operating system-based mindset and successfully transform itself into an AI and cloud computing giant. In 2014, when Amazon released its Echo smart speaker and AI voice-enabled assistant, Apple was still complacently wallowing in past successes. Today, Amazon’s Echo not only wipes the floor with Apple’s AI personal assistant, Siri, but — supported by an ever-enlarging third-party install base — the Amazon Echo platform is snapping at the heels of Apple’s iOS.
The steps Apple is taking to transition away from hardware should be taken as a stark warning to those Taiwanese manufacturers that form part of its supply chains. As Chinese companies gradually supplant their Taiwanese counterparts as specialist hardware manufacturers, if the TAIEX continues to be dominated by Apple’s supply chain component manufacturers, Taiwan’s manufacturing industry will eventually be reduced to nothing more than a bit player in the market.
(Translated by Edward Jones, Taipei Times)
Photo: Reuters
照片：路透
早在三年前，市場就出現唱衰蘋果的聲音，但屢被蘋果財報打臉，去年第四季，iPhone營收年減百分之十五，蘋果終於走下神壇，一如先前三星等對手，難以擺脫在智慧型手機的撞牆宿命；日前外電報導，蘋果為了降低對iPhone業務依賴，進行了高層重組，但重組後的蘋果，對台灣供應鏈而言，滋味已難甜美如初。
蘋果這次重組走的最大咖是負責零售部門的阿倫茨，她在二○一四年被庫克從Burberry高薪挖角到蘋果，一度被視為接班人；阿倫茨的確成功將iPhone打造成奢華品牌，至少從售價看來是如此；阿倫茨走人，似也代表蘋果奢侈品化路線的失敗或告終。
在智慧型手機硬體發展已見頂，透過高層重組，似可看出蘋果試圖從硬體轉向軟體思維；但蘋果內容及應用服務平台都得依靠iPhone等硬體銷售來支撐，未來硬轉軟過程勢必挑戰不小。
大型企業營運轉向一如巨輪調頭，不可能只換掉一位高階主管；以微軟為例，花了兩、三年時間，分批有序地換掉大多數執行副總以上的核心高層，才擺脫微軟困守在作業系統的舊思維，成功轉型成AI及雲端服務巨頭；二○一四年，當亞馬遜推出Amazon Echo，蘋果還沉迷在不敗成就，如今Echo不僅將Siri甩到幾條街外，透過越來越多的第三方裝置支援，Echo的平台實力已直追iOS。
蘋果由硬轉軟無異也給台廠供應鏈嚴重警告，當中國逐漸取代台灣的硬體強項，若蘋果供應鏈未來還是台股的主角，那台灣產業早晚會成為市場的配角！
(自由時報記者高嘉和)
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True or False?
1. Sales of Apple’s iPhone range of products declined slightly last year.
2. In the future, Apple intends to shift focus away from hardware and produce more revenue from its software operations.
3. Apple’s senior management is undergoing a comprehensive restructuring process.
4. The author believes Apple’s AI voice assistant, Siri, is superior to the Amazon Echo.
5. Taiwanese hardware manufacturers may become casualties of Apple’s reorientation toward software.
(Edward Jones, Taipei Times)
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